Fasting: the Subject of the Day

Every year, during the month of January, my family completes a fast. I have always been taught that fasting is a good thing for us to do, and I agree wholeheartedly. It is beneficial to our mind, our spirit, and sometimes even our body. It brings us closer to God, helps us hone our self-control, and helps us keep our flesh in check, allowing our spirit to grow.

Let's look at a story in the Bible. In Mark 9:17-29, a man brings his possessed son to Jesus, and this is what takes place:


And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. 

Notice the last verse. This man had brought his son first to the disciples, but they could not cast the spirit out. Then, they take the boy to Jesus, and in one sentence, just one, the spirit is gone. Obviously, because Jesus is God incarnate, he could have easily just looked at the spirit and uttered a silent command, or maybe just waved His hand, and it would have scampered away so quickly that it would have tripped over itself multiple times. Why did he speak? To teach the disciples a lesson. And, thankfully, they realized that they were missing something. They went to Jesus and asked Him, "Why could not we cast him out?" to which he replied, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." Pretty interesting, huh? Here's the same story, but told by Matthew (Matthew 17:14-21):


And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. 

And in Luke 9:37-42:

And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child. And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father. 

(One thing to remember about the different versions is that, they were written by three separate men with three varying viewpoints. And each man wrote with a different purpose in mind. Because of this, sometimes the details are slightly varied, but all of the stories are still correct.)

One interesting thing to note is that fasting, in the Bible, when speaking of spiritual things, is always coupled with prayer. We'll talk about this later on. In this story, it appears that they were also having some issues with lack of faith and unbelief (which some could argue as being the same thing). Jesus did touch on this with them, and, from Matthew 17:20, we find the famous "faith as a mustard seed" Scripture. But He also left them a clue. "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (Matthew) "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (Mark) In law, they teach that during a trial, one must have 2 or more agreeing witnesses for something to be true. In that case, there's your proof.

But, you might say, "Hey, wait! They didn't fast while Jesus was with them." That's true. In Luke 5:33-35, Jesus explains why, and later in the chapter even gives a parable concerning it.

"And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days."

Jesus, the bridegroom, was with them. Let's look at it this way, when you're at a wedding, do you wear all black to the wedding? Do you skip bringing a present? Do you forbid yourself to eat cake? Do you avoid laughing, smiling, congratulating, and enjoying the day with the new couple? Of course not! Weddings are meant to be a celebration of a new life, a time of fun, love, and laughter. You wouldn't want to be mopey during such a great moment, would you? Exactly. And this is why they didn't fast. (This story also appears in Matthew 9:14-15 and Mark 2:19-20.)

Fasting is a hard thing. One must sacrifice their flesh and must submit themselves. And, the only part of us that enjoys that is our spirit. Let's face it. No one likes going without food, staying with a certain type of diet (Daniel's fast), avoiding their favorite video game, staying away from media, or any other type of thing that you may fast. It's not fun, because your flesh wants to do those things, but you are choosing to not do so. Because Jesus was with them, it was a time of celebration. I mean, seriously, if you were hanging out with God incarnate, would you want to be mopey? No way! I'd be having the time of my life! "Hey, Jesus, I'll race you to the top of this mountain. Oh, look! You're already there." "Hey, want to play Scrabble?" "Hey, want to have a juggling competition?" "Can you tell me in chronological order the events of Earth's history?" "How exactly did you come up with light?" "How did you confuse the languages at the Tower of Babel?" "How do our speech processors work?" "How exactly do the  signal-carrying electrical currents travel throughout the body?" "How does my brain tell my legs to move?" "Why do I not like oranges, but love orange juice?" "Hey, let's have a party! I'll introduce you to all my friends!" If God incarnate was sitting in your living room, what would you do?

Earlier, I spoke of a clue. My belief is that Jesus was giving them direction for their coming ministries. Because it is true: if you wish to further your ministry into the unknown, you must first fast and pray. You can't receive this kind of growth through other's relationship with God (Acts 19:13-16). Let's look at it this way. Say you're trying to lose weight. If your friend goes for a run, and you just sit on the couch, will you lose any weight? No! Why not? Your friend was exercising! Because you did not do the work. Fast forward a few months... the process is the same. Every day your friend goes for a run, and you just sit on the couch. Who will lose the weight? The Friend will. It is the same application. You do not see progress in yourself unless you do the work.

Jesus was saying, Hey, you're going to need this tool after my ascension. You'll need to call upon My Name for these things to happen, and when that happens, you'll need to be prepared. He knew that those men were going to shake the world to its very core. He had planned it all, and now He was preparing them. 

Why is it important that you couple prayer and fasting? I can answer this in one word: temptation. In Matthew 26:41, it reads, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Now, just so you're aware, this verse has nothing to do with fasting. In fact, this verse comes from when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion. The disciples had fallen asleep, and Jesus was warning them of the vulnerability of the flesh towards temptation. Although this verse is not related to fasting at all, the concept is the same. When one fasts, they are putting their flesh into submission. They sacrifice their fleshly desires. Because of this sacrifice, our fleshly selves are not pleased at all. They don't like it, nor do they enjoy it one bit. Which means that when temptation comes along, it comes with great strength, and our flesh wishes to indulge in that temptation. This is why prayer is coupled with fasting. To fast without prayer is to have a lopsided table. If you place something on the table, it will fall off and crash onto the floor. But, if you fast and pray, your table is level, and the strength combined is enough to hold up what is placed onto the table. You become stronger spiritually, and are more able to fight these temptations.

Fasting is not a bad thing at all. Even Jesus fasted (Matthew 4:1-11). Fasting only becomes bad for you if you either 1) do it for the wrong reasons, or 2) do it ignorantly. The average person can go without food for 40 days. Some people can't go without food for very long periods because of the way their body is made, and some people can't do it at all due to health reasons. That's ok. Fasting is not only abstinence from food. True fasting is in your motives; it is only true fasting when you purpose to put God first. You look at your priorities and what you do most, and if those priorities have nothing to do with God, then you purpose to change what you are doing, and sometimes cut it out completely for a time. This even counts with food, because it is quite often that food can become such a great temptation. Fasting is simply the practice of self-control and sacrifice of the flesh, which results in God being first in your life. As an example, for 30 days I did Daniel's fast where I did not eat meat, dairy, eggs, or sweets. I also fasted videos, a particular video game, and for two weeks I fasted Facebook & Pinterest. Please understand that I am not bragging. Any effort to fast is a great thing, no matter how great or how small. I'm showing you that it's not always necessary to fast food. It's often preferred because you must really control flesh more so than if you weren't watching movies or playing a video game. But it's also important to look at the other things in your life. I had been spending too much time on my video game, movies, Facebook, and Pinterest. Because of this, I chose to abstain from those things; I needed to refocus. My parents and I decided to do Daniel's fast because we would have unified fasting in our home, which is good when you are a team of ministry.

Moving on, fasting is very good and beneficial. If you are trying to fast food but have medications that you need to take food with, I'm sure God will understand if you have to eat a piece of bread with your medicine. Sometimes, we have to make exceptions because of health reasons. But, if we are healthy, there is no reason for us to have exceptions. Everyone in the church is on different levels of spiritual understanding. One cannot expect a new convert to suddenly go with no food for 40 days. They must grow to the point where they can achieve it. To be honest, I've never fasted food completely before, and last month was the first time I had done Daniel's fast for 30 days. This doesn't make me any less of a Christian. I have simply not felt that I was ready spiritually for a no-food fast, and doing Daniel's fast for 30 days was an accomplishment in itself for me. It is a process for everyone. The more you grow, the more you can do. It's like a child... they must crawl before they walk, sit before they stand, and speak jibberish before they talk. I freely admit that I'm still growing, and that I'm far from finished. But, I do my best to grow, and in the future, I will complete a no-food fast. It's a personal goal.

As followers of Christ, we must continuously align our priorities correctly, sacrifice our flesh, strengthen our spirit, and strive to move closer to God. As a result, we do become closer with Him, we learn more about Who He is, and He, in turn, furthers our ministries. And fasting is a successful method to accomplish this. I think that I would rather place my flesh in check, if it meant that I could help someone come to the place where they can receive God's Spirit. That's a fair trade, don't you think?

Have a lovely day!

Happy new year! - Purposeful planning for 2013

Happy new year, everyone! Looking back over the last year, it was a good year. It was a very hard year, and I learned a lot of lessons. But in retrospect, it was still a good year, and I'm better for having lived through it.

I regret, however, that I didn't blog near as much as I would have liked. But, I normally only do it when I have a very strong inspiration. I will still be writing as such, but I also am going to develop a plan for some topics that I will be writing about. Many of them stem from my recent lessons in life.

Believe me when I say I don't have all the answers. I'm recently 18, single, and ready to push on and climb the mountain of adulthood. My new years resolutions include becoming fit, getting my ministerial license with the Nordic region of the UPCI, learning to drive, becoming an AIM, getting into University, and finding a job. Some of these I can complete pretty easily, but others, not so much. Getting a driving license here requires a bit of money, getting into university is difficult, and I need to read quite a few books, teach some Bible studies, and sit in a room full of people and be interrogated to get my ministerial license. Well, not really, but I'm told that they ask very difficult questions. So, these are my challenges, and I am completely confident that I will complete them.

Since I am currently in the mode of purposeful planning for the next year, I decided that it would be a good idea to make some plans about blogging. I had a recent conversation with a friend and we talked of some topics of which I should write. Keep your eyes open for when they show up, and we'll have a lovely ride. And if you'd like me to write about a topic, feel free to ask. I can't guarantee I'll write about it, but I just might. So, without further or do, the topics chosen so far are:

• Perspective
• What Christ is to you
• Positivity vs. Negativity
• Growth/moving forward
• Soulwinning

This is my year of purpose. I am preparing myself for the responsibilites that face me as an adult, as a grown woman, as a worker, as a one-day future wife, as a Christian, and as a minister. When my parents leave for the States to raise money for the work here, I will stay behind and work with our group, not only to maintain, but also to expand. Here I will create my home, and if God tells me to leave Finland, or I get married to someone from another country, only then I will leave. If not, here I will stay. Finland presents many challenges to me, and I look forward to facing them with God's help.

What are your resolutions? Will this be a year of purposeful planning for you, too?

Have a lovely day!

How will the story end?

I found this a couple months ago in Helsinki. "I'M ALONE. I NEED LOVE." I took a photo of it nearly as soon as I saw it, because it made me think very hard. How desperate, how hopeless must this person's life be, that they would feel that it was necessary to reach out to people that they will probably never meet? How destitute must they feel, that they could not even rely on their family or friends? How hurt were they? How lonely, how depressed? In a place where many things were written, some of it not very clean and rather stupid, there is a message from someone begging for love. Everyone needs love. It is a natural desire; we wish to feel that we are loved, that we are needed. Without love, life is pretty much hopeless. We need it in our lives daily. I try to tell my family and friends that I love them as much as I can, because I understand that it is important. I know what it feels like to wonder if one is loved or not. Because of this, I want to be sure that those close to me know that I love them. But let's get back to the subject: how does the story end?

As I said earlier, how hopeless must this person be? How often do you go to complete strangers, or write to people that you will never meet, and tell them that you are alone and need love? You wouldn't do it at all! You would go to a close friend or someone that you trusted and tell them. So, how desperate must this person have been? I think they must have been horribly desperate. How does the story end? This person probably has about 4 options. 1) They trudge on through life, hoping for that day when they will discover love. 2) They sleep around/have a one-night stand with the promise of love, but they'll most likely end up feeling worse than before. 3) They end everything and commit suicide. 4) They find someone who will introduce them to Jesus Christ and they will feel His undying love.

What do you think is the ending? How does this story end? We will probably never know. But think, there are millions of stories that are the same, billions even. People who feel lonely and unloved. People who just want to know that they are important, that they are appreciated, needed, and loved. We all know these people. We may not realize it, but we do. There are people in our lives that feel this way. What are we doing about it? What are we, as followers of Christ, doing to show these people God's love?

I did a post a little bit ago about conditional love versus unconditional love. I'll try to not bring up the same points, but there is something that we need to consider. The Bible speaks often of taking care of others and showing them God's love. This is one of the main points of missionaries: we go out into the world and show God's love. Someone once said that everyone is a missionary whether they realize it or not. You are the missionary to your neighborhood, your workplace, your school... what surrounds your life is your mission field. If we looked at our lives and our surroundings this way, I believe there would be less people who felt lonely and unloved. Why? When one has God's peace, they are not lonely. When one has God's love, they are not unloved, but rather loved with a love that will never die, nor falter in strength. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. If we don't have God's love within us, or are not showing that love, then we, as Christians are useless. If we are useless, then people will go to hell. People who WE could have helped.We all need to remind ourselves of this continuously.

This photo deserves a grand speech, and I admit that I do not have words enough to convey my thoughts when I look at it.  But my question to you is this: how do you want the story to end?


Have a lovely day!
Candace Nicole

Unconditional Love VS. Conditional Love: The Big Issue

Today, I am writing about unconditional love vs. conditional love, and how it affects our walk with God. This has been inside of me for a little while now, and I would like to share my thoughts with you. In our world today, we see two different kinds of love: unconditional and conditional. There are other kinds of love, such as brotherly love and a friend's love. But today, we're only looking at these two.

"What is unconditional love?" you might ask. According to Dictionary.com, unconditional love is "affection with no limits or conditions." If you look at the suffix "un-" it means "not," and is used to convey an opposite. So what does this tell us about conditional love? Conditional love is affection with conditions, such as loving someone for their money. When the money is gone, the love is gone also. There is a condition, an expectation. With unconditional love, you give everything and expect nothing. You love someone whether they have money, or whether they are poor; it does not matter to you. But, even this definition is simply the tip of the iceberg that is unconditional love.

The Greek word for unconditional love is "agape." It is used in this way when describing Jesus Christ's selfless sacrifice to provide salvation to humanity. This love is very important to every Christian, and even non-Christians. Without it, we could not be saved... We would have no hope, no chance of every spending an eternity with God in heaven. But, because God manifested himself as Jesus Christ, and showed unto us this love, we have that chance. Take a minute and imagine: what would life be like if God only chose certain people to spend eternity with Him in heaven? What if you would never have any assurance that you would go to heaven? How would you feel? I know how I would feel. I would feel hopeless, trying so hard to make myself acceptable to God, not knowing if He would turn me away or accept me. But, this is not reality! God has opened His arms to anyone who will receive Him. And I am thankful that I know I have the chance to spend eternity with Him.

Let's look and see what the Bible says about unconditional love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (KJV) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

John 15:13 (KJV) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

These two passages mean so much to me, for they describe unconditional love. I try, with all my strength, to live these verses every day. In the passage in Corinthians, it lists many good deeds that people perform. But it shows that, unless we have love, namely, unconditional love, our deeds are not worth much at all. I can do all of these things, but if I do not have the love of Christ within me, I am nothing, and my works are nothing. I will be so bold as to say this, if we do not love unconditionally, not expecting anything in return for that which we do for others, we are not fulfilling our duties as followers of Christ. And if we are not fulfilling our duties as Christians, then our ministries will be ineffective, our walks with God will be ineffective, and our lives will become selfish and self-centered. There is no place in God's kingdom for selfishness, only selflessness. 

Let's take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. This time we'll read from the NLT. "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Take a good look at these verses. "Love does not demand it's own way." Unconditional love vs. conditional love. Do you demand your own way? Are you always expecting, and rarely giving? Or do you give and expect in return? I sincerely hope your answer to all three questions was, "no." This is so important to a Christian's walk with God. If you are not selfless, and do not love unconditionally, then God cannot bless you. 

Let's look at John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This speaks for itself. Imagine you were in a life-or-death situation with someone that you claim to love. If their life was in danger, would you be willing to sacrifice your life to save them? Would you honestly die for them? Look at it this way: there is no way that they can repay you for your actions, especially if you were to die. Knowing that there would be no way they could give you any form of repayment, would you still do it? Or would you let them die? To me, if I was in a life-or-death situation, and someone I loved stepped in and gave their life for mine, if there was any doubt in anyone's mind that that person did not love me, it should be immediately discarded. I would sincerely thank God for that person every day, for the rest of my life. There is no greater love than a man who would give his life for his friends. Loving unconditionally... are you?
Let's look at it from another angle. The person in danger is a complete stranger, and you have never spoken to them before. Would you still try to save them, or would you let them die? This is something that I have to ask myself. If there was a child trapped in a burning building, would you try to save them? If there was a man at gunpoint, would you do everything you could do for him? It is very easy to help an older woman carry her groceries, but if she was being mugged, would you step in and defend her? It's also easy to give yourself for those who are close to you, to those whom you love, but what about strangers? Would you do the same for them? Do we, as followers of Christ, wish to love unconditionally, as He does? Then we should be willing to do those things for strangers, as we are willing to do them for those close to us.

People need to see God's love manifested in this world, and it can only be done through us, His followers. We need to ready ourselves, step up to the plate, if you will, and be willing to truly love as God does, giving all and expecting nothing in return. There is nothing as unproductive as a selfish Christian. In fact, a selfish Christian is not a Christian at all. Yes, it's harsh, but it is true. During His time on earth, was Christ selfish? No. Is God selfish? No. Then we, as Christians, or followers of Christ, should not be selfish, and should love unconditionally.

I wish you a blessed day. :)